Liam Bishop curating the best writers to help you with your writing
Episodes
Wednesday May 10, 2023
Wednesday May 10, 2023
"I was interested in stories with stories and how the family used folklore to approach conflict"
Soraya Palmer joins me from Brooklyn to discuss her debut novel, recently released in the UK, The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts, published by Serpent's Tail (more info here!).
We speak about hauntings, family narratives, and Anansi the animal trickster!
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points:
Tales from the Caribbean: myth and folklore re-told in modern day Brooklyn
Life inside the multiverse: seeing different aspects of characters through time.
Reference Points
Writers
Toni Morrison
Film and TV
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The Exorcist
Myths and Folklore
Anansi
Ol Higue
Rolling Calf
Thursday Apr 20, 2023
Thursday Apr 20, 2023
It's a Catalan Literature in Translation Special!
I'm delighted to welcome Mara Faye Lethem and Tiago Miller to discuss two recently released books from Catalonia
Irene Solà's When I Sing, Mountains Dance has has been re-released in paperback translated by Mara for Granta
Josep Maria Argemí's The Angel of Santa Sofia has been newly released and translated by Tiago for Fum d'Estampa
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points:
Good and Evil: how the boundaries between what's right and wrong are blurred and might reflect debates about Catalonian history
The Catalan Language: Literature and it's role in keeping a language thriving
Reference Points:
Irene Solà's first novel Els dics (The Dams, L'Altra Editorial, 2018)
Jaume Cristòfol Pons Alorda
Jorge Luis Borges
Víctor Català
Jordi Cussa
Josep Palau i Fabre
Maria Mercè Marçal
Mercè Rodoreda
Marià Vayreda
Artists
Caravaggio
Salvador Dali
Mara's Essay in Lithub: https://lithub.com/author/marafayelethem/
Friday Mar 24, 2023
Friday Mar 24, 2023
"I was fascinated by the idea of what is real and what isn't real what people perceive to be real and not real"
Welcome back to Series 4 of the Rippling Pages. And Seraphina Madsen is here to talk witches, the occult and different realities!
Aurora is Seraphina's second novel and is published by Dodo Ink
Read an extract here
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points:
- Witchhunts and witchcraft - a cultural phenomenon or do novels about it reveal something more pervasive about our culture?
- Permission to read - knowing no boundaries and enjoying what you read. How Aurora and her friend's quest for new knowledge is something to be embraced
Reference Points:
Dee Brown - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Carlos Castaneda
Joseph Campbell
Dion Fortune
Jack Kerouac - On the Road
Seraphina Madsen - Dodge and Burn
Monday Oct 17, 2022
Monday Oct 17, 2022
"I don't think poetry should be giving a lesson to anyone"
Caitlin Stobie is here to talk about THIN SLICES, her new collection from Verve Press (Pre-order here )
Caitlin examines culture's need for 'origin' myths, as well as asking what is a language for the pre-lingual?
We recorded this episode in the run-up to Caitlin's appearance at Ilkley Literature Festival - more of which you can find out here: https://www.ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk/whats-on
And find out more about the University of Leeds Poetry Centre here - https://poetry.leeds.ac.uk/
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points
Who needs origin myths? Lessons re-learned from Eve
Leave no trace: what we leave when we leave
Reference Points
Malcolm Gladwell - Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Eileen Myles - Chelsea Girls
Donald Winnicott
Thursday Sep 29, 2022
Thursday Sep 29, 2022
Both writer and translator of SALT CRYSTALS, Cristina Bendek and Robin Myers, are here to discuss this shape-shifting and history-searching novel. A book about a woman, Victoria, who explores her own and the island she's from, San Andrés's, history.
Find out more about the book here
Rippling Points:
A momentaneous piece or peace? How can we write about the transient, the changing, in a form which preaches endurability and timelessness?
Disease as a symptom: why Cristina chose to write about diabetes
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Reference Points:
Geoffrey Hill
Thursday Aug 25, 2022
Thursday Aug 25, 2022
"It's a quest to try to collect all of the Picadors..."
Nicholas Royle is here to talk about White Spines: Confessions of a Book Collector, and his journey to find Picador books. You can buy the book here
Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop
Rippling Points
The Second Life of Books: the second-hand bookshop as a home for new, undiscovered and forgotten writers
Got to Catch Them All: Is your favourite bookshop named?
Writers and Books
AJ Ashworth
Andrea Ashworth
The Lake John Foxx (Nightjar Press)
M. John Harrison
Anna Kavan - Ice (Picador: 1967)
Alberto Manguel (editor) Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature (Picador: 1983)
Livi Michael - The Lake (Nightjar Press)
Alison Moore
Nicholas Royle - First Novel (Vintage: 2013)
Nicholas Royle - Counterparts (Penguin: 1995)
Nicholas Royle - Ornithology (Confingo: 2017)
Nicholas Royle - An English Guide to Bird Watching (Myriad Editions: 2017)
Nicholas Royle - Uncanny (Manchester University Press: 2003)
Per Wahlöö - The Lorry (Picador: 1972)
Conrad Williams
Artists
Paul Delvaux
Salvador Dali